Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a hydraulic fracturing system and method for enhancing an effective permeability of low permeability earth formations to increase hydrocarbon production, enhance operation efficiency by reducing fluid entry friction due to tortuosity and perforation, and to open perforations that are either unopened or not effective using traditional perforating techniques including techniques utilizing shaped explosive charges, as well as reducing entry friction in slotted pipe during multi stage hydraulic fracturing operations.
Discussion of Related Art
Hydraulic fracturing is a method of extracting hydrocarbons from earth formations in which thousands of gallons of a fracturing fluid, generally water, proppants, and other chemicals, are injected into a wellbore and a surrounding earth formation. The high pressure creates fractures in the earth formation, along which hydrocarbons, such as gas and petroleum, may flow to the wellbore and collected therefrom. However, this basic hydraulic fracturing method is unable to extract a maximum amount of hydrocarbons. Generally, after an initial fracturing operation, pumping continues to cause deepening and widening of the fissures by injection of more fluid. While it is generally desirable to open a plurality of fractures in a selected stratum, the basic process is only capable of creating a suboptimal amount of fractures. When an incipient fracture begins to open, the fracturing fluid enters this new space and the pressure in the wellbore and fractures decreases reducing the tendency to open new fractures. This phenomenon limits the results of the basic fracturing process.
Other known hydraulic fracturing processes attempt to improve the process described above by adding a hammer effect to transmit a relatively large hydraulic shock against the formation to be fractured. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,122 to Donald S. Hulse and U.S. Pat. No. 3,048,226 to E. W. Smith. Other known hydraulic fracturing processes use a series of pressure pulses to improve the typical fracturing process. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,311 to Norman F. Whitsitt and U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,205 to Othar Meade Kiel. However, these known processes generally effect only a small number fractures radiating from the wellbore and may cause damage to piping and equipment.
Other known hydraulic fracturing techniques attempt to overcome the issue of reduced pressure due to newly opened fractures by blocking the newly formed fractures to allow a return to the initial pressure to allow additional fractures to be created. These methods include using degradable and/or non-degradable ball sealers that enter newly opened perforations to restrict flow of fracturing fluid into the opened perforations, thus forcing the fracturing fluid to open new perforations and to create new fractures. Ball sealers land on the newly opened perforations until a complete ball-out is achieved, where all possible perforations are opened and then sealed with a ball. At this point, no more flow is possible and the ball sealers have to be removed by flowing the well back, or in the case of using degradable balls, a long period is needed to allow for the balls to dissolve. These techniques are not practical in long horizontal wells where 100 or more perforation clusters are used to stimulate the long horizontal well. Furthermore, the wait time for the degradable ball sealers to dissolve would render the operations uneconomical.
As such, there is a need for an improved hydraulic fracturing process that provides an increased hydrocarbon production without the shortcomings of the known processes.